Disease-fighting body decentralized

Saudi Arabia: Health Minister Mohammed Alhayazie has decentralized the command and control center (CCC) to all health departments nationwide, and moved the body’s headquarters to Riyadh.

The directors of the 20 departments would now report to the headquarters in the capital city. The CCC had originally been set up by acting health minister Adel Fakeih in Jeddah to tackle Ebola, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus and other deadly infectious diseases.

The minister also ordered that a new managing board runs the CCC under the chairmanship of the deputy minister for public health, instead of the minister, with members including advisers, assistant deputy ministers, general managers and medical consultants.

In a related matter, the minister has accepted the resignation of the deputy commander of the CCC, Anees Sindi, who was appointed by the former acting health minister. Sindi was also a leader of the clinical operations platform of the center.

A health affairs observer told Arab News the move is aimed at expanding the scope of the CCC by building on the foundation set up by the previous minister.